RED choosing sides

Got sent this from an EPIC user yesterday. I can't say it doesn't concern me as it may sway opinion in the pro community. Wondered what people's thoughts are.

www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?811...20-Tower-RED-EDITION

Lots of incorrect technical information being spouted on that thread, as usual.

If you have $10 grand (or more) laying around doing nothing, and you shoot exclusively with RED cameras, go for it. Looks great for a niche upper end RED market.

But how many of those posting in that thread really have $10k for a tower PC? Seriously, how many studios do you know with a single tower that cost $10 grand? I've taught and consulted for years all over the country, and I've never seen a $10,000 edit workstation before.

At the end of the day, has nothing to do with my work needs. It's aimed at a niche market. So my response is, "And...?"

It looks like Jarred Land doesn't realise Apples new place.

Final Cut Pro 2012
- RED camera support

:whistle:

Software support is only one piece of the puzzle.

When I started my own business in 2006, I bought the newest, fastest MacPro I could lay my hands on- a G5QUAD. At that time, HD editing was only just starting to become commonplace in the sectors I was working- so I was future proofing myself against advances in camera and software technology. I spent about $10K.

The only mistake I made (though unavoidable) was buying the last of the PowerPC towers. With the Intel switch a year later, my machine was outdated a lot faster than it should have been. Though unbelievably, I was still able to sell it LAST YEAR for $500!

It's unquestionably a small niche that needs that much horsepower- but they definitely need it. Finishing at 1080 is within reach of most modern day machines, but for feature work, or people who are doing broadcast work and are interested in it having longevity into the future. 4K and even 8K resolutions are going to become more and more a concern.

I've been working off laptops and now an iMac since I left my G5. But if Apple has a really great product next year, I'll be first in line.

Features have been edited with Mac Pros via XSAN RAID storage for YEARS. And that all costs way under $10k. I don't see dumping $10k into any single workstation.

Actually, looking at the specs more closely, the price isn't surpassing at all.

The machine comes with a built in RED ROCKET Card and two RED STATIONS. That on it's own is selling for about $6,700 on RED's site as the "RED MEDIA MANAGEMENT COLLECTION".

That leaves only $3,300 for the tower itself (CPU, GPU, RAM, etc)- which doesn't seem out of line to me.

With the RED ROCKET and the REDMAG readers, the tower isn't priced out of line, not at all.
It's good this thing exists.

I don't think RED has given up on Apple in any way. Did you read this post, a couple of days before the HP RED EDITION post, by Jim Jannard, the founder and CEO of RED?

www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?80810-Apple-s-announcement

I think it's clear Jim still is an Apple lover, still only uses a Mac and the Macbook Pro announcement is very much up his ally.

I'm also patiently watching what Apple will do with their Mac Pro and their upcoming FCP X announcements. I hope they get their R3D support well thought out.

Here is article on the subject:
RED Gives up on Apple, Teams up with Adobe, NVIDIA and HP

Adobe and Blackmagic are just some of the names that replaced screenshots in their manuals from a OSX to a Windows 7 one, as well as shifted their recommended systems from one platform to another. RED Digital Cinema was one of companies that was vendor agnostic, but even the creators of 4K and 5K cameras cannot keep their users in the dark anymore.

Interesting I was not aware of the change of there recommendations. :dry:

OK, a rewrite of this post. Here's my response to Theo Valich's article. I've emailed him a link to it offering to let him reply.

www.fcproxuniversity.com/FCPro_X_Univers..._Makes_Up_Stuff.html